Dominique Roche

I am interested in how biotic and abiotic stressors affect animal behaviour and performance. Biophysical interactions (effect of temperature, water flow, etc. on species) and biotic interactions (competition, predation, parasitism) have broad implications for understanding how species persist in their natural habitat, particularly in the face of environmental change.

My PhD research focused on fish locomotion and the morphological and physiological adaptations that allow species to respond and adjust to environmental stressors. I try to understand how the individual performance of temperate and tropical fishes affects broad-scale ecological patterns such as population structure and species’ distributions.

My research interests are broad, and include studies on energetics (metabolism) and performance (kinematics), ecomorphology, behavioural and physiological ecology, and invasive species in fishes, crabs, and other aquatic organisms. I like to combine laboratory experiments with field observations to relate quantitative experimental data with ecological outcomes. I am also interested in science policy and the open science movement.

In July 2014, I joined the Eco-Ethology lab as a postdoc and I am now working with Redouan Bshary on the application of biological market theory to coral reef fishes.

Project outline: Advances in our understanding of ultimate explanations for the evolution of cooperation have not been matched by similar progress in understanding proximate mechanisms that underlie cooperative behaviour. For example, stylised game theoretic models can help us identify which conditions are necessary for cooperation to evolve but they fail to explain frequent variation in levels of cooperation seen in nature. We plan to examine proximate causes of variation in cooperation levels using the client-cleaner wrasse mutualism, where “client” fishes visit cleaners to have their ecto- parasites removed. Conflicts of interest arise because cleaners prefer to eat the protective client mucus rather than the harmful ectoparasites. The objectives are to (1) identify the relative importance of mechanisms underlying variation in cooperation, and (2) examine how these mechanisms interact with changes in service supply to test biological market theory.

Ongoing research:

Effect of waves on the fast-start performance of juvenile coral reef fishes

2. Mendoza Franco EF, Roche DG, Torchin ME (2008) New species of Diplectanum (Monogenoidea: Diplectanidae), and proposal of a new genus of the Dactylogyridae from the gills of gerreid fishes (Teleostei) from Mexico and Panama.Folia Parasitologica 55: 171-179.

1. Roche DG and Torchin ME (2007) Established population of the North American Harris mud crab,Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Gould 1841) (Crustacea: Brachyura: Xanthidae) in the Panama Canal.Aquatic Invasions 2: 155-161.